Monday, May 31, 2010

I have always liked decoupage but my projects never turned out the way that I had envisioned them. After reading the decoupage section in Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts I decided to give decoupage one more try.

My daughter Brittany's friend Mitch was the inspiration for this project. Mitch collects Marie Antoinette memorabilia. On their trip to Versailles Mitch was disappointed that the only collectibles were pictures of Marie Antoinette. He told Brittany that he wished he could find something that he could display on a table. Brittany knew that I wanted to do another Marie Antoinette project and was looking for an idea. I had just recently finished reading a book about Versailles and decided to do a small chest that resembled some of the chests in the book. I decided to replace the painted images on the top of the Versailles chests with a decoupaged picture.

I used Jolee's dimensional stickers for the trim.

The frame was cut using Cricut Home Decor and card stock. It was then painted with metallic gold acrylic paint and sealed with Modge Podge.

Directions:

1. Lightly sand a pre-sanded wooden chest to remove any rough spots. Wipe the piece down with a damp cloth to remove dust. Paint the chest with Folk Art Italian Sage acrylic paint. Let the chest dry over night then apply a second coat of paint.

2. Paint the trim with Dazzling Metallics Elegant Finish Venetian Gold acrylic paint. Let the chest dry over night then apply a second coat of paint.

3. Scan a picture of Marie Antoinette and print on glossy photo paper (I used an inkjet printer). The printed picture is approximately a 2 1/2 inch oval. Carefully trim around the edges of the picture. Apply the picture to the top of the chest using a foam sponge and a very thin coat of Modge Podge. Using light pressure roll a brayer over the top of the image to remove any air bubbles. Let the image cure for about a week and then lightly sand it with very fine sand paper. Wipe with a damp cloth to remove any dust and let it dry. Apply a second coat of very thin Modge Podge and brayer the image. Let it cure for about a week. Since I was working under humid conditions I let the piece sit for a week between coats of Modge Podge to be sure that the piece was completely dry.

4. Using a foam sponge and Modge Podge lightly coat the entire chest to seal it. Let it dry completely and then seal it again.

5. Using the Cricut Home Decor cartridge and cream card stock cut an oval frame at 2 1/2 inches. Paint the frame gold and when it dries paint it again. After the frame is dry lightly coat it with Modge Podge to seal it. When the Modge Podge dries glue small pearls around the edges of the frame.

6. Glue the dimensional stickers to the top, sides and front of the chest. Glue the frame around the picture of Marie Antoinette.

Tip: Instead of a traditional palette and disposable palette paper try using a large glazed ceramic tile. They are available from Home Depot for about $1.50 per tile. They clean up with soap and water.

Monday, May 17, 2010

My daughter Brittany's friend Nancy is getting married in June. Brittany and Nancy met in an Economics class in college. This was about the same time that I began baking my way through Marcel Desaulnier's Death by Chocolate books. Nancy and Brittany agreed to become my cookie testers, so I would bake a batch of cookies and send them off to be critiqued. I wanted to give Nancy a special gift (after all she was one of my cookie testers) so I decided to do a quilled invitation to commemorate her wedding.

Quilled Invitation Directions:

1. Make 3 roses using 3/8 inch wide red paper. To make the rose insert the end of the paper into a slotted quilling tool and turn it 3 times to form the rose's center. Fold the paper away from you at a right angle. Roll the paper, keeping the bottom edge tight against the quilling tool causing the top edge to flare out to form the petal. Repeat this step until the rose is the size you want. Carefully remove the rose from the quilling tool and let it rest and then glue the end in place.

2. Make 1 small rose using a strip of 1/8 inch ivory paper. Then make 1 rose using 1/2 inch ivory paper. Color the rose made with 1/2 inch paper using pink chalk.

3. Tear 3 pieces of 12 inch (1/8 inch wide) quilling paper in half and roll into coils. Let the coil rest on the work surface and then glue the end in place. Shape the coil into petals by tightly pinching one end with your fingers. Glue 5 petals together to form a flower. Tear 2 pieces of 12 inch quilling paper in half (6 inches) and then tear it in half again (3 inches). Roll the 3 inch strips into coils. Let the coils rest and then glue the ends in place. Glue 5 petals together to form a small flower. Glue a pearl to the center of each flower.

4. Using 6 inch strips of 1/8 inch wide green paper roll 10 coils. Let them rest then glue the ends in place. Pinch the one end between your fingers and form the coil into a leaf.

5. Make the vines by rolling 6 six inch strips of 1/8 inch wide green paper into loose coils. Slowly unroll the coil until the end of the vine has a slight curl.

6. Place the wedding invitation in a mat. Remove the glass from the frame. Then place the matted invitation in the frame and arrange the flowers and the vines along the side and the top of the mat. Cover the invitation with a piece of plastic wrap and carefully glue the flowers, leaves and vines in place. Let the glue dry and then remove the plastic wrap.

Note: I used an ivory double mat and an ivory and gold frame. For further quilling instructions go to Martha Stewart.com

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My daughter, Brittany sings Karoake with her friends at a local club in Koln, Germany. When I bought the Once Upon a Princess cartridge this image reminded me of her. I made this card and sent it off to her in Germany. I mailed it two weeks before her birthday and was hoping that it would arrive on time. Fortunately she got the card in time for her birthday.

I used Cricut's Once Upon a Princess cartridge for the images, Cuttlebug's Allegro embossing folder and Martha Stewart's fence punch.

2. Using the Cricut Once Upon a Princess cartridge and cream card stock cut Doll 2 at 3 1/2 inches. Press the shift key and cut the top layer for Doll 2. Using the layer key for Doll 2 cut the hair out of brown card stock.

3. Keeping the size dial set at 3 1/2 inches, cut the outfit out of black card stock using the Rocker key. Press the shift key and cut the skirt out of purple card stock. Press the Layer key and cut the skirt pieces out of bright green card stock. Press the shift key and then the Layer key and cut the microphone and necklace out of silver metallic card stock.

4. Press the phrase key and cut the rock star background at 1 1/2 inches out of bright green card stock. Press the shift key and cut rock star out of purple card stock. Glue the purple image over the green one and embellish with purple glitter glue.

5. Punch stars out of the various colors of card stock used in the project. Punch a fence out of black card stock with the Martha Stewart punch.

6. Layer the pink embossed card stock over a piece of black card stock leaving a 1/4 inch border.Assemble the doll and attach to the embossed card stock using raised glue dots. Add facial features to the doll using markers and chalk. Highlight the microphone, belt buckle and necklace with silver glitter glue. Layer the fence at the lower edge of the card and the rock star at the upper right hand corner. Tie a piece of green ribbon and glue it just below the fence. Glue the stars randomly around the card. Embellish the stars with glitter glue.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Since Alice In Wonderland is one of my favorite books, I decided to do a project devoted to Alice. The inspiration for this card came from the chapter where Alice encounters a caterpillar sitting on mushroom smoking a hookah. The caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. Since I never really liked the hookah smoking caterpillar I decided not to include him in the card. Instead I chose to surround Alice with the mushrooms representing the many choices that she faces.

Here are the directions for the card:

1. Cut a piece of patterned paper approximately 7 1/2 inches by 5 inches. Cut a piece of purple card stock approximately 6 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Fold a piece of 8 1/2 by 11 inch card stock in half and glue the patterned paper on top. Next center the purple card stock on top of the patterned paper and glue into place.

2. Using the largest die in the Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped rectangles set cut a large rectangle out of lavender card stock.

3. Emboss the rectangle with the Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder. Highlight the paisley images with purple chalk. Cut a piece of pink sheer ribbon and attach it to the bottom edge of the rectangle. Center the rectangle on top of the purple card stock and glue in place.

4. Using the Cricut Once Upon a Princess cartridge set the size dial to 4 inches and cut Princess 2 out of cream card stock (this is the doll base). Then press the shift key and cut Princess 2 again (this is the doll top). Press the layer key and cut the hair out of yellow card stock.

5. Press the Dress 1 key and cut a dress out of blue card stock. Press the shift key and Dress 1 to cut the apron out of white card stock. Press Dress 1 again and cut the dress out of white card stock. Select the Layer key and then Dress 1 to cut the headband out of black card stock.

6. Assemble the doll by gluing the doll top over the doll base. Glue the hair to the doll and then glue the bangs over the hair. Glue the headband to the hair. Using markers color in the eyes and the mouth. Cut off the blue stockings from the lower edge of the dress and replace them with the white stockings from the white dress. Glue the white apron on top of the blue dress. Using a black marker color in the shoes. Attach the doll to the embossed rectangle just above the ribbon. Make a bow with the pink ribbon and glue to the upper left corner of the embossed rectangle.

7. Using the Cricut Paisley cartridge set the size dial to 2 inches and cut Mushroom 1 out of bright blue card stock. Press Layer 1 and Mushroom 1 to cut the mushroom top out of bright pink card stock. Press the shift key and Layer 2 to cut the mushroom stem out of green card stock. Glue the mushroom pieces together. Attach a small paper flower with a brad to the center of the mushroom top.

8. Cut Mushroom 4 at 2 1/2 inches out of bright pink card stock. Press the shift key and Layer 1 to cut the mushroom top out of orange card stock. Press Layer 1 to cut the mushroom stem out of bright green card stock. Press Layer 2 to cut the flower out of bright blue card stock. Assemble the mushroom and glue the pieces in place.

9. Set the size dial to 2 inches and cut Mushroom 4 out of purple card stock. Cut the mushroom top out of bright green card stock, the flower out of bright blue card stock and the stem out of orange card stock ( glue only the circles to the stem of the mushroom). Assemble the mushroom and glue the pieces in place. Set the size dial to 1 1/2 inches and cut the stem out of bright green card stock, the top out of bright blue card stock and the flower out of bright pink card stock. Assemble the mushroom and glue the pieces in place.

10. Attach the mushrooms to the bottom of the card using raised glue dots. Glue a paper flower to the upper right hand corner of the card. Glue a butterfly button to the center of the flower. Using bright green card stock and the Martha Stewart leaf punch, punch three leaves. Highlight the edges of the leaves with green ink. Glue the leaves just under the flower petals. Using chalk highlight Alice's face and dress.